Dogs Domesticated 33,000 Years Ago, Skull Suggests

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A canine skull found in the Altai Mountains of Siberia is more
closely related to modern domestic dogs than to wolves, a new DNA
analysis reveals.

The findings could indicate that
dogs were domesticated around 33,000 years ago. The point at
which wolves went from wild to man's best friend is hotly
contested, though dogs were well-established in human societies
by about 10,000 years ago. Dogs and humans were buried together
in Germany about 14,000 years ago, a strong hint of
domestication, but genetic studies have pinpointed the origin of
dog domestication in both China and the Middle East.

The Altai specimen, a well-preserved skull, represents one of the
two oldest possible domestic dogs ever found. Another possible
domestic dog fossil, this one dated to approximately 36,000 years
ago, was found in Goyet Cave, in Belgium.

Anatomical examinations of these skulls suggest they are more
doglike than wolflike. To confirm, researchers from the Russian
Academy of Sciences and their colleagues drilled a tiny amount of
bone from the Altai dog's incisor and jaw and analyzed its DNA.
They conducted all of the work in an isolated lab and used extra
precautions to prevent contamination, as ancient DNA is extremely
fragile.

The researchers then compared the genetic sequences from the
Altai specimen with gene sequences from 72 modern dogs of 70
different breeds, 30 wolves, four coyotes and 35 prehistoric
canid species from the Americas. [ 10
Breeds: What Your Dog Says About You ]

They found that the Altai canid is more closely related to modern
domestic dogs than to modern wolves, as its skull shape had
previously suggested. That means that the Altai canid was an
ancient dog, not an ancient wolf — though it had likely diverged
from the wolf line relatively recently, the researchers report
today (March 6) in the journal
PLOS ONE.

If the Altai dog was really domesticated, it would push back the
origin of today's house pets more than 15,000 years and move the
earliest domestication out of the Middle East or East Asia, as
previous studies have suggested. However, the analysis was
limited to only a portion of the genome, the researchers wrote.

"Additional discoveries of ancient doglike remains are essential
for further narrowing the time and region of origin for the
domestic dog," they said.